Author: Alfred Rudzki Hitchcock

“Ok, you’re a Halfling again, crouching in the bushes, coddling an unconscious badger.”

Wild nights in Dungeon World.

Working on a Front today for my game tonight. It’s been weeks since we’ve played, sadly, since everyone has been busy.

Elsewhere you can find my Front titled “The Scouring of the Spirit Wood.” Today I’m ironing out the companion Front “Trespasses in the Deep,” about the Kobold defenders protecting their army’s secret escape tunnels — and disturbing Orc burial grounds in the process.

It’s dungeon crawl-y, and I’m injecting a bit of real character into it by making one of the dangers a group of mundane NPC grave-keepers who want the Kobolds out, but don’t want their ancestors disturbed by the PCs either.

It’s occurring to me, as I work, that the kobolds in the barrows are a threat but they aren’t a Danger. That is: they won’t get worse if the PCs don’t intervene — they’re going to leave as soon as they know their army succeeded or failed. They’re an incidental threat; a bit of conversation to throw in if someone fails a roll.

That could change, and probably will, but for now they’re just color.

Just a cool observation, and a solid example of how sometimes monsters and such aren’t Dangers, but just present when Dangers are happening.

During our game of Dungeon World, the Druid explained to me what being THE Druid means.

There are actually dozens of Druids in the Halfling clans — they’re spiritual leaders, they commune with the animals and the spirits. They’re a secretive sect, with secret rituals to usher then through the ranks. Being THE Druid means that when he underwent the final ritual, the spirits answered back and flooded into him to mark him.

He is not just the Halflings’ Druid — he is the Spirits’ Druid as well, and he helps bridge both worlds.

I asked if that made him important, like the Druid-pope or whatever. He said no, he’s just a special servant.

So, we have the Avatar, except he belongs to his people wholly, rather than having any individual power or authority of his own.

It feels like an awesome train wreck waiting to happen.

My group made plans to kick off Dungeon World this Monday evening. I’ve been reading my copy of the book, and I’m reviewing my GM principles. I’m percolating some fantastical imagery, and thinking about cool things and listening to good music. So excited!

Inspired by some comments in the recent thread about paying for Dungeon World supplementary materials, I thought I’d take people up on the advice offered: making available an earlier draft of a work for feedback.

So, I have an Adventure Primer I’ve been writing. It’s a bunch of notes about a place, some NPCs, some monsters, a possible plot, and a Front. It is mostly done as far as I can tell — but hey, I could be wrong! I’d like to make it available to interested parties who:

•Will take my Primer and run a game with it.

•Come back to me with their thoughts and feedback.

•Want to read some cool setting stuff about a dwarven city, a prison, a couple rituals, and an item or two.

If you’re interested, please let me know! I want to fine-tune this thing so I can really focus on polishing my presentation!

Hey, look what cool thing I got in the mail today!